The 11th Annual Kauaʻi Chocolate and Coffee Festival returns to Kilohana Plantation in Līhuʻe on Sunday, October 18, 2026, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., bringing a full day of tastings, demonstrations and live entertainment built around two of the island's most celebrated crops. Festival admission is free, with tasting passports available for purchase in advance online or at the event while supplies last. This year's theme, “Celebrating Kauaʻi. Supporting Recovery,” frames the gathering as both a showcase and a fundraiser.
The festival will feature chocolate and coffee products from Kauaʻi and across the Hawaiian Islands, alongside local food, crafters, artisans, food trucks and exhibitor booths, according to The Garden Island. Attendees can connect directly with local farmers, chefs, roasters, chocolatiers, baristas, manufacturers and small businesses, and learn how cacao and coffee are grown, produced and transformed into finished products. Hawaiʻi is the only U.S. state where cacao is grown commercially outdoors, a climate advantage that underpins the entire premise of the gathering, as noted by Hawaii Public Radio.
A Mansion Built on Sugar, Now Hosting Cacao and Coffee
The setting itself carries its own agricultural history. Kilohana Plantation spans 105 acres and centers on a 16,000-square-foot Tudor mansion built in 1935 by sugar baron Gaylord Parke Wilcox, according to Go Hawaii's travel guide. The estate once served as the hub of a 27,000-acre sugar operation, a reminder of how thoroughly the island's farming economy has shifted since.
That shift is visible in the island's coffee industry, which has scaled up dramatically on Kauaʻi's Westside. Kauaʻi Coffee Company operates the largest coffee farm in the United States, cultivating more than 4 million coffee trees across 3,100 acres, per Civil Beat's reporting on the company's history. The estate converted from sugar cane to coffee following major hurricanes late in the 20th century, and the company finalized a long-term lease extension for the land in 2026, securing jobs for more than 140 agricultural workers on the island, the outlet reported separately.
Coffee's Scale Versus Cacao's Emerging Niche
Statewide, Hawaiʻi's total utilized coffee production was forecast at 17.8 million pounds on a cherry basis for the 2025–2026 crop season across 6,500 bearing acres, according to the USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service. That scale still dwarfs the islands' cacao harvest, though craft chocolate has carved out a growing specialty niche; Hawaiʻi growers harvested 129,000 pounds of cacao valued at nearly $900,000 in 2021, per Hawaii Public Radio.
Festival supporter Lydgate Farms exemplifies that niche on Kauaʻi itself. The fifth-generation, Kapaʻa-based operation farms 46 acres with 3,500 cacao trees, and its single-origin Hawaiian chocolate has been recognized three times among the world's top 50 at the Cocoa of Excellence Awards in Paris, according to the Hawaiʻi Activities travel guide. The farm's roots trace back to 1865.
Coffee's growth hasn't come without setbacks. Hawaiian coffee farms continue to face yield pressures from Coffee Leaf Rust, a fungal disease first identified in the state in late 2020, along with Coffee Berry Borer infestations and severe weather swings, according to the USDA's Hawaii-specific coffee statistics report. Those pressures make the industry's continued scale, and events like this festival that spotlight it, notable even as growers manage ongoing disease and climate risk.
Funding a Local Food Hub
Proceeds from the festival benefit Mālama Kauaʻi, a community-based nonprofit working to increase local food production and access while building a more resilient island community, per the event's own description carried by The Garden Island. Founded in 2006, the nonprofit operates the KauaiLocalFood.com food hub, which aggregates and distributes agricultural products from more than 100 local farms, according to a document from the Office of the Governor of Hawaiʻi. The organization also administers youth meal boxes and kūpuna produce programs across the island.
The festival is supported by the County of Kauaʻi, Lydgate Farms, Special Events Hawaiʻi and the Hawaiʻi Tourism Authority through its Community Enrichment Program. That program awarded $1.5 million in funding to 49 organizations statewide in 2026 to support 60 programs highlighting local culture, agriculture and culinary arts, according to Great Travel Philippines.
A Long Run With a Pandemic Pause
The festival has a track record stretching back over a decade and was recognized as Best Tourism Event in the Heritage and Cultural Division at the 2019 Hawaiʻi Lodging and Hospitality Awards. It was canceled in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic and presented virtually in 2021 before returning to an in-person format, per The Garden Island's account.
Organizers confirm the 2026 festival will proceed as planned. Those needing accommodation requests must submit them to Special Events Hawaiʻi by October 11, 2026, by calling 808-223-6040 or emailing [email protected]. Vendor, presenter or sponsor applicants can reach organizers at [email protected], and full festival information is posted at kauaichocolateandcoffeefestival.com.
